Cristo Morales

Name: Cristóbal “Cristo” Jesús Morales

Gender: Male

Age: 17

Grade: 11

School: Cochise High School

Hobbies and Interests: Baseball, emo and punk music, playing the piano, people-watching

Appearance: Cristόbal has a lean, wiry look, standing at 5’ 8” and weighing 152 pounds. He has broad shoulders and distinct muscles in his shoulders and arms, but his middle and legs are softer and less toned. He is of Mexican descent and has a tanned complexion and dark brown eyes and hair. His hair is thick and chin-length at its longest point in the front and reaches just past the top of his neck at its longest point in the back. It is styled in an undercut, with the sides of his head shaved. He has a square jawline, a thin mouth, a slightly flat nose, and wide eyes.

Cristóbal most frequently dresses in jeans and t-shirts with graphics of his favorite bands or sports teams, with a hooded sweatshirt if the day is chilly or a baseball cap if it is particularly sunny. On the day of the abduction, he was wearing a black t-shirt with the cover art of the album “American Idiot” by Green Day, blue jeans, black and white tennis shoes, and an Arizona Diamondbacks baseball cap.

Biography: Cristóbal Jesús Morales was born to Daniel Ruiz and Amanda Morales on March 30, 1998. Daniel and Amanda had been dating for about a year and chose to move in together and get engaged when Amanda discovered that she was pregnant, but their relationship quickly began to sour after Cristóbal was born. Both were just in their early twenties and felt that they were still too young to be parents, but they had been pressured by their families to keep their child rather than opt for abortion or adoption. They did have a genuine love for Cristóbal and did their best to be good parents, but the feeling that they were using up the prime years of their lives lingered.

Daniel especially began to feel trapped by the prospect of raising a child. Both his and Amanda’s parents had offered their support in raising Cristóbal, and he began pressuring her to leave Cristo in the care of his grandparents so that they could resume their relationship as it had been before Amanda’s pregnancy. Amanda resisted and tried to convince Daniel that Cristóbal needed his parents, but neither of them could change the other’s mind and the arguments just escalated.

One night, a particularly heated fight turned physical, and Amanda ended up calling the police on Daniel. She did not end up pressing charges, but she did move back in with her parents soon after, taking Cristóbal with her and officially breaking off her engagement to Daniel by the time Cristóbal was two. Daniel continued trying to contact Amanda at irregular intervals only to be rebuffed. About six months after officially ending their engagement, Amanda filed for a restraining order against Daniel, since he could not be convinced to leave her alone for good. As a result, Cristóbal has had no contact with his father for most of his life, or with his paternal grandparents since Amanda’s relationship with them had gradually deteriorated as she tried to remove Daniel from her life.

For the next few years before he entered school, Cristóbal’s mother and maternal grandparents took turns in being his primary caregivers. All three of them worked, his grandparents both being longtime employees at a small local accounting firm and Amanda having obtained a job at a hair and nail salon, but between the three of them they managed to balance their shifts so that at least one of them was home with Cristo at any given time. They made a point of doing this so that they would not have to spend any of their small family budget on extra childcare. Cristóbal was easy to care for, being a quiet and well-behaved child for the most part, but rarely got to interact with kids his age or many people outside of his family at all at this point, due to their busy schedules.

Upon entering school, Cristóbal had trouble adjusting from his relatively secluded early life. He and his family mainly spoke Spanish in their home, and he had some difficulty with learning to read and write in English and spoke with a bit of an accent, which garnered some teasing from other kids who had difficulty understanding him at times. His family situation was also an uncomfortable subject, and though his mom and grandparents tried to reassure him that a lot of kids had similar arrangements, he frequently felt embarrassed about the fact that he effectively did not know his father when many of his classmates did and often mentioned their parents. Already shy, Cristóbal took to avoiding situations where he thought people might make fun of him; it became routine for him to keep quiet and fade into the background when around others, acting as an observer more than an active participant.

As he continued through elementary school, Cristóbal’s reluctance to speak up around others became a point of concern for his teachers and family, who worried that he would end up isolated from his peers if he could not learn to reach out more. Amanda began taking Cristóbal out to social and school events when she did not have to work so that he would have to interact with others more outside of the classroom.

One of the things that did capture Cristo’s interest was baseball, and he spent many weekends watching televised and local games with his grandfather. When he got old enough, his mother decided to enroll him in a local team sponsored by their church, hoping that it would improve his interactions with other kids. While he initially balked at being pushed out of his comfort zone, he eventually found himself enjoying the game and the chance to be physically active outside of school. He still tended to keep to himself in social situations, but he did bond with a few of his teammates. Playing a sport also gave him a point of interest to connect with other classmates over, and he started to come out of his shell a bit more.

Amanda connected as well, to Cristóbal’s volunteer baseball coach, a police officer named Dominic Valdes. Dominic worked well with the kids on the team, encouraging the less confident ones like Cristóbal, which Amanda appreciated, and they bonded over their fondness for the sport and other shared interests. Dominic became one of the few friends that Amanda saw regularly outside of work at the salon, helped along by the fact that he was an adult that Cristo felt comfortable with. As Cristo finished elementary school and moved on to middle school, Dominic gradually became more of a fixture in his life, being invited over to the Morales home and assuming a more paternal role towards Cristo. It came as little surprise to the rest of the family when Amanda and Dominic announced that they were dating when Cristo was in seventh grade, and their relationship has continued to the present day.

One of the ways that Dominic made an effort to bond with Cristóbal was through introducing him to music that he himself had liked as a teenager, including bands such as The Ramones and Black Flag, and more recent punk rock bands like Green Day. Cristo personally has never gotten as involved in punk rock and its subculture as Dominic did during his adolescence, but he enjoys the music and was also drawn to the emo subgenre through his exploration of punk rock music and the musical movements that it inspired. He felt more of a connection with the lyrical and more emotional style of many emo bands versus the rebellious nature of classic punk, though he feels that both genres are good and listens to both about equally. He enjoys bands like AFI and The Used, and more popular ones such as My Chemical Romance and Fall Out Boy. Cristo's interest in the punk and emo subcultures begins and ends with the music, since he never felt comfortable integrating himself with the typically outspoken people who made up the more involved fans. His interest in music is mostly a personal thing, as Cristo quickly discovered that the genres and bands he prefers are divisive among fans who hold strong opinions about what does and doesn’t fit under the punk or emo labels, and he prefers to just listen to the music rather than debate about it.

Up until his developing interest in music, Cristóbal’s grandmother was the family member that he had the least connection with, simply due to a lack of common ground between them. They were never distant, but he spent less one-on-one time with her than he did with his mother and grandfather, and with Dominic. When he expressed an interest in music and possibly learning to play an instrument, his grandmother happily volunteered to teach him to play the piano. While it had been a long time since she herself had played and she was a bit out of practice as a result, she was a capable teacher and Cristóbal was an eager student. He has been practicing with her instruction for the past few years, and is steadily improving, though he struggles with trying to play anything by ear. Recently, he has been looking up sheet music and learning to play piano arrangements of some of his favorite songs along with the traditional songs that are in his grandmother’s lesson books.

Cristo has continued to play baseball throughout middle and high school, and holds the position of second baseman on Cochise High’s baseball team. His fellow teammates make up most of his close friend group, as he is still very shy and withdrawn in social situations, preferring to observe rather than engage. He developed a habit of people-watching when he is in public places, finding it calming to wonder about strangers from afar rather than approaching them. This is an interest that he doesn’t bring up often with others, since he has difficulty explaining what he find appealing about observing people and worries about making himself sound like a stalker.

His awkwardness and tendency to just watch others rather than talk to them makes some people uncomfortable, and some of his classmates consider him creepy and awkward thanks to these habits. He doesn’t put forth a lot of effort to challenge this view of him, preferring to try to ignore it and avoid conflict rather than potentially start an argument. He does find people interesting and enjoyable to watch, but is most frequently uncomfortable when he has to interact with groups or people that he is unfamiliar with. For this reason, he has also never had a romantic relationship progress past a crush, something of a touchy subject to him when his friends start talking about their own romantic endeavors.

His school performance is mostly unremarkable, mostly B’s with the occasional A or C. He still struggles most often with English, particularly with writing and grammar-oriented work, and rarely speaks up in class unless he is called upon. The most school-related effort that he puts in is with the baseball team; he hopes to be able to earn a scholarship to play in college, though he is so far undecided on where he would like to attend and what he would like to study. He has occasionally considered whether he would like to play baseball professionally, but is unsure if he has the skills and mindset for such a lifestyle.

Advantages: Cristóbal is decently athletic and used to dealing with minor injuries from playing baseball. He is used to being quiet and going mostly ignored by others, and could use this to his advantage if stealth is necessary.

Disadvantages: Cristóbal’s shyness and awkward mannerisms are off-putting to some, which may hurt his chances of making allies. He tends to avoid problems rather than trying to solve them, which often leads to the consequences being worse than if he’d addressed the issue to begin with.

Designated Number: Male student No. 021

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Designated Weapon: 5-foot spear

Conclusion: I think B021 may be onto a great tactic here. Just using that quietness to sneak up behind people than BAM! Surprise penetration. - Josie Knight

'The above biography is as written by backslash. No edits or alterations to the author's original work have been made.'

Evaluations
Handled by: backslash

Kills: None

Killed By: Kimiko Kao

Collected Weapons: 5-foot spear (assigned weapon, to Kimiko Kao)

Allies: Abigail Floyd

Enemies: 

Mid-game Evaluation: Cristobal awoke in the warehouse, hidden from immediate view of people entering. While evaluating his island plans Taranis Behzad entered and the two searched for supplies and discussed plans until Cristo's close friend Abigail Floyd appeared, scaring Tara off. The two were then joined by Kimiko Kao, and they conversed for a while. Kimiko, however, realized Cristo's weapon was unattended and attempted to escape with it. Cristo tried to stop her but was stabbed in the chest by Kimiko's improvised shard of glass in the process. He died before Abby could intervene.

Post-Game Evaluation: Holy shit. Figures the one kid literally quieter than him gets the kill. Like I said, surprise penetration. - Josie Knight

Memorable Quotes: "I don't suppose I've ever thought about it... Peacefully, I guess." - Cristo to Tara, on how he'd prefer to die.

Other/Trivia

 * Cristo's first and middle names were originally swapped; this was changed when it was pointed out to his handler that she had accidentally named him Jesus Christ.

Threads
Below is a list of threads that contain Cristo, in chronological order.

The Past:
 * Hab Da Sleepover
 * Land of Milk and Honey, Don't Fail Me Now
 * Growing Flowers in the Desert

V6 Pregame:
 * Driving Me Crazy
 * I could live in the world just like a stranger
 * Wasserweber
 * What the hell is a baseball?
 * Empire of Dirt

Sadie Hawkins Dance:
 * Bohemian Purgatory

V6:
 * i can't wait to be sad and alone on the edge of the universe
 * Prepare to Burn

Your Thoughts
''Whether you were a fellow handler in SOTF or just an avid reader of the site, we'd like to know what you thought about Cristo Morales. What did you like, or dislike, about the character? Let us know here!''
 * Zari's a good writer. Her writing isn't, like, pretentious or whatever, it's solid and uses the fundamentals of English well to subtly but strongly highlight the emotional and mental narratives of her kids. Cristo's pregame was a bit all over the place and some of the stronger emotional moments he showed in pregame have no particular payoff on island. But he was rolled, so not much that could have been done there. Cristo is effective, really effective, with what he does have on island. The quiet determination is in character and sold very well, and Abby is a pregame setup that ultimately pays off at the end. His death post is very well written and also effectively sells him as a character almost singularly. Keeping it all inside, waiting, hoping, trying to reach for something and almost succeding. A underwhelemed sort of tone that could be contention or disappointment, and it works either way. Powerful stuff. -- Cicada Days